Half a million households cancelled BBC licence fee last year
https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jul/23/half-million-households-cancelled-bbc-licence-fee-last-year?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Posted by ClassicFlavour
Half a million households cancelled BBC licence fee last year
https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jul/23/half-million-households-cancelled-bbc-licence-fee-last-year?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Posted by ClassicFlavour
33 Comments
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Yeah. I’ve got an investigation visit booked for 24th July. I’m very excited. Sadly… “Nobody” will be home.
While I think having a public broadcaster is a good thing we should keep around. I am really frustrated by the necessity of having to pay a regressive tv license for specifically this instead of it being funded through general taxation in a way that can be scaled based on ability to pay. It makes no sense that people in poverty pay the same as the richest people.
Pay your license fee. Pay for Huw Edward’s £480k salary folks. Be responsible citizens.
My first experience with BBC after living alone is accusing me of watching live TV when I didn’t even have a television on my new place.
It’s only going in one direction.
I expect we’ll see a halved licence fee at some point in the future and a massive reduction in services.
https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/what-does-your-licence-fee-pay-for-top13
World service shouldn’t be paid by licence fee, that should definitely be by the foreign office.
Online is a sizeable chunk. The BBC have their fingers in a lot of pies. I get the need for a news website and perhaps some public service stuff like revision material which is linked to educational programmes… but this can surely be reduced in footprint even further.
You could thin down radio even further and drop some TV. The BBC shouldn’t be competing with ITV let alone sky. It’s a fine line to tread though as if you take away the populist stuff then even fewer people will pay. Before you know it, BBC will be a subscription-only service.
It’s always the sabre rattlers that who come out swinging for the BBC. If you genuinely give a shit about the UK and British culture we need a BBC. It’s because of the way it’s funded that it can commission programs for niche demographics or take chances on things that on paper should not work or be profitable. Stuff like that often goes on to inform the culture as a whole.
I’m in favour of strong reform, I’m in favour of paying based on income instead of a flat fee. But I do not want to see the baby thrown out with that bath water. In this age of oligarch owned media we need properly independent voices.
I know someone who cancelled their BBC license because of Channel 5’s black Anne Boleyn.
I went online in 2013. I don’t use the BBC at all. So I don’t pay for it.
Sack Kuensburg and all the other high pay-low-worth mouthpieces, scrap the shallow soft entertainment shows, and give the money to commissioners to produce high quality original British drama and comedy series.
The Outlaws, This is Going to Hurt, Boiling Point and others brought in 5x-10x the viewership of your average BBC show that’s nothing but schedule filler. The appetite for the BBC is there but they spaff money up the wall paying talking heads or making yet another show about buying houses, low level crime stories, or a new tan for David Dickinson.
Those living in Britain should count themselves fortunate that they can opt out.
That is not the case in other countries where the license fee is mandatory.
Dont you still need a TV licence if you watch ITV, Channel 4 etc?
Do we want what we have now or do we want American style for profit news where right-wing people watch right-wing news and left-wing people watch left-wing news and both sides suspect the other of planning the apocalypse?
Their political journalism is so toxic and awful, it’s masochism to pay for it at this point. They have completely neglected their duty to hold the Tories to account on austerity, Brexit, corruption, privatisation and foreign policy then it’s *surprised Pikachu face* when a crisis unfolds in the manner that experts and leftists ( labelled as extremists, no-nothing youths, or liberal elites ) predicted when these voices were ignored or attacked by the *checks notes* hosts of the programme.
If I didn’t live at home still there’s no way I’d dream of paying it.
If Gary Lineker gets £1.3 million and Huw Edwards can get almost £500k without going to work, and license fee payers don’t get a democratic vote in the service…..nor can they watch the full archive at their demand…….then who on Earth would be stupid enough to pay?
It bothers me enough that my Mum pays because we’re not exactly rich and it’s £170 odd a year. It’s extortion, especially given how very quickly down-hill their broadcasting has gone in the past 20 years. The range of quality output has collapsed.
The last thing and the most important thing. The thing I’ll never understand. Is that if you switch on your television and never once switch the channel to the BBC, you’re still liable to pay the license fee.
It’s criminal. The government should be taken to court over it.
It’ll go the way of landline phones, dial up internet and paid newspapers. People can access information in so many different ways for free and you can’t put the genie back in the bottle.
What pisses me off is they want to be paid with this tax, then they sell the rights to the tv shows that we all paid for and put them behind paywalls on other streaming platforms. If paying for a tv licence granted me access to everything in the BBC catalogue then yeah, i’d pay it.
They can fuck off.
Is there a reason why they don’t make it operate like any other streaming service like Netflix where you pay a monthly fee to use the service
No other subscription service threatens me with letters every month unless I give them my data. Why does the TV licensing authority?
Nothing for me on the BBC since Top Gear lost the trio. I haven’t bought a TV licence in many years as I just watch movies or non live streaming content so don’t need one.
Not had a licence for ~10 years, Youtube and other services have the content I want. I’m in my 50s. I’m kinda surprised there are still 24m households paying it. but if the trend continues the BBC will have to adjust quicker.
One thing that is true, I think, is that if they cut and cut, more people will leave, a vicious circle. For me that started when they dropped F1 coverage (many years ago now), as that alone was enough reason for me to have a licence.
Those salaries are eye-watering though, so on principle I’m glad not to pay for it.
Good, maybe if it wasn’t a shite propaganda wing for the Tories that puts fuck all on people would care.
Never had a license fee cos I don’t watch telly or BBC, but still had one of their goons come to my door when I was younger. I told them I didn’t even own a TV at the time let alone an arial etc to watch the BBC. They then said they ”needed” to come in to confirm this. When I told them there was no need, I just literally said I don’t have a TV, they then continued to insist that I should have no problem with them coming in then. This from a literal stranger apparently sent by the license fee board or whatever. I again told them I was uncomfortable with them coming in and I had already confirmed no TV was being watched, they told me they could ”force” me to come in. When I said how, they said they would go get a warrant to come in and search the place. I suggested they go do that and they got in my face, telling me just how much trouble I would be in when they came back.
It’s a genuine and baseless racket. Even if I had a TV and had it set to BBC 24/7 you’re not fucking coming into my flat to look around, what year do these people live in lol
Fuck the BBC.
The first week I moved to the UK they sent me the a threat, I paid for 2 months thinking it was mandatory then I had a thought.
I don’t even have a TV
They need to adapt to the times. I haven’t watched anything the BBC produces for as long as I can remember. It’s absolute dross aimed at unemployed / retired people. What is there for the under 30s?
I’m not one of those half a million…I did it 3 years ago!
My only care is for doctor who, and (at a stretch, radio 1). But aside from that, I don’t even watch TV anymore. It’s just streaming services.
Filled out the form to say that we don;t require a TV licence anymore. Kept getting letters warning me, called up the agency, nicest guy in the world answered and explained. He updated my account and said ignore anymore warnings
“this is harassment, never visit my property again” is a great phrase to indicate you are revoking the implicit right of access.
What took then so long? I cancelled mine years ago, and never looked back. All that extra time to do interesting stuff, instead of sitting watching inane programmes on the TV. On the occasions I do want to watch something, there’s more than enough on YouTube.
And as for all the scaremongering about visits from inspectors, all I ever get is a letter every couple of years asking if I’m sure I don’t need one. Just go online and fill in the form, then nothing more to bother about.
I think I’m on the third round of the same.bunch of threatening letters. I started completing the opt out, but the amount of data they wanted was ridiculous.
I am tempted to cancel it next year. The renewal was around when England went to the semis of Euro 2024. So I renewed. But as England didn’t win, and I don’t really watch much TV these days, I ll be cancelling after this one.
I have a lifetime supply of DVD and Blu ray movies anyway.
Had them send a whole load of their threatening letters to me last year, so I eventually got so angry I rang them up to ask them to stop. The letters were freaking the fuck out of my non-British housemates so it had to be done.
I was quite angry on the phone, so much so that the guy said “I’m just trying to do my job” after he put me through the million questions he had to ask me in order to cancel a subscription I never bought or asked for.
My response was literally “I’m also supposed to be working, but instead I’m on the phone to you”.
We cancelled our license earlier on this year. We’ve never watched much TV, the kids don’t watch much and prefer to play games online. when we do it’s all using catchup/streaming services.
Despite ticking the boxes on the TV licensing website to say we don’t watch any live, we got various threatening letters and a visit. I told the guy at the door that we don’t watch live TV, have already informed them of this, and that I’m disabled and a carer, and they should stop pressuring us into buying something we don’t need.
Despite that we still get threatening letters, the most recent saying they would hold the investigation for 10 days so we can get a licence.
They can f*ck off, on principle. It’s put me off the BBC.